Category Archives: inspiration

This past week, I haven’t written a word (as far as book-writing goes). This is unusual for me, because I may be slow, but I am steady. I’ve been at a family reunion and getting kids ready for back to school (HOW did that happen so soon?) and tending to their health care needs and clearing out my office and going through paperwork and waiting

I have all these thoughts going on in my head about what I should write about. Within the space of a couple of weeks I got to hear two of my (very different) idols speak–Michael Phelps in Pasadena and P.D. James in London. My attendance at one event was very planned (I found out that Michael was speaking in an article online–I think on NBC–and

When I was presenting to a group recently, someone asked me about the hard parts of being published and going on tour. There are hard parts now and then (leaving the kids, no sleep, crazy schedules, deadlines, etc.) but there are also so many good parts. Obviously, the best part is getting to meet the readers, who care about the books and the characters. I

I was going through photos on my phone when I found this one that I took of my mom’s pastels. She had them all set up on a plateau in Zion and she was waiting for the light to be just right so that she could capture the sunset on the water and the rocks. I love this picture. Even though she isn’t in it,

My friend Brook took the above picture, and she used the “mud bird” scene in REACHED as the inspiration. I’ll keep this quite spoiler-free, but basically it’s a scene where a girl makes a bird out of some materials (one of those materials is mud, and one is glass). It’s a scene about creation and making something out of what you have. I’m working on

Labor Day has come and gone, so I guess we can (mostly) say goodbye to summer–it is still hot hot hot here, which is great. Winter will be long enough. But I thought I’d post a few pictures of what I did this summer as we gear up for the fall…and REACHED. As if I’m going back to school too…although I’m actually the only person